Question: how do you wear a Jaeger-LeCoultre without straps?
Answer: you spritz it on!
If this doesn’t make sense to you, it is because you may not have heard that the Swiss watchmaking brand has dropped a trio of perfumes with French perfumer, Nicolas Bonneville.
And before you ask, the answer is ‘no.’ No, you may not begin to refer to Jaeger-LeCoultre as a watchmaking-turned-lifestyle brand. The brand, popular for its Reverso timepieces, is yet to announce that it is looking to expand outside the world of horology. This new perfume collection is simply a collaboration with Monsieur Bonneville under its Made of Makers programme.
Like most luxury brands, Jaeger-LeCoultre started the Made of Makers initiative to explore purely creative design endeavours in conjunction with top talents from other fields who share the same values and vision, and whose creative pursuits can provoke new conversations and unlock new creative frontiers. For its latest project, the Swiss horology brand chose the perfume niche because it believes that the process of timepiece and perfume-making involves meticulously choosing materials and carefully blending them while employing artistic creativity with scientific precision to achieve the best results.
The Jeager-LeCoultre perfumes by Nicolas Bonneville is a mini collection of three fragrances that “collectively capture the identity of La Grande Maison while each expressing a particular aspect of its story.” The first, Precision Pioneer, is a blend of incense, wood and oud that evokes the process involved in watchmaking, from processing raw materials in the blacksmith’s fire to crafting pieces on the watchmaker’s bench.
The second, Timeless Stories, is a softer yet just as powerful blend of violet leaves, orris and leather. It is a tribute to the iconic Reverso created initially for polo players. The leathery aspect of this scent pays homage to the horses’ stables and saddles, while the violet leaves represent the fields where the games are played. Orris represents the dual nature of the Reverso – resilient and durable on the outside, refined and delicate on the inside.
The last in the collection, Celestial Odyssey, contains notes of patchouli, ambery woods and vanilla, a combination that “pays tribute to the moon, sun and stars, the three celestial bodies that have always captivated watchmakers.”
Each perfume has been purposefully crafted with a limited number of highly concentrated scents because, per Nicolas, “the principle of ‘less is more’ ensures that your fragrance retains its clarity and depth; you achieve a unique scent with real character and distinction.”
Now that we have gotten acquainted with the Jaeger-LeCoultre perfumes by Nicolas Bonneville, the next natural is, ‘How do we get our hands on them?’ Unfortunately, this is purely a passion project that both brands embarked on “to create new things and new territories that are quite unconventional.” Which means that they may never be sold because “We don’t want to make money out of it. It is really an invitation to travel with us.”